


With Love and the Finest Paints A College Student Can Afford

by PenzyRome



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Soulmate AU, this is for indy's birthday love u indy, tiny bit of angst but it's mainly cute, yknow the one where what you write on urself shows up on ur soulmate? yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 19:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenzyRome/pseuds/PenzyRome
Summary: David Jacobs has known who his soulmate is since he was eight years old.All Jack Kelly knows is that his soulmate has a heart of gold and doesn't realize it.David has been hiding his marks since he got the first one.Jack knows his soulmate has been hiding them, but he leaves marks anyways, trying to say "I love you" without words.It takes them a while to work things out.





	With Love and the Finest Paints A College Student Can Afford

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deadwritersociety](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadwritersociety/gifts).



> I said "Indy what do u want me to write for your birthday" and they said "soulmate au javid" so here we are

David Jacobs’s soulmate created the most beautiful art in Manhattan, and David hated it. He’d wake up with paintings across his arms and ink doodles all over his wrists. He’d allow himself a moment to marvel, and then would cover them up with long sleeves, no matter the weather.

  
David Jacobs, when he was twenty, had known who his soulmate was for twelve years. When his classmate gasped and showed everyone a neat column of writing on his hand, David had shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. The next day, he woke up with drawings across his forearms, and saw those same drawings on his classmate’s arms.

  
His soulmate’s name was Jack Kelly, and when David turned twenty, he had been best friends with his soulmate for eight years. No one he wasn’t directly related to had seen him without long sleeves in years, even the person he would trust with his life.

  
David didn’t know why. He was out, he wasn’t ashamed that Jack was his soulmate. Out of anyone he could be perfect for, Jack would be his first choice.

  
If he was being honest, he was in love with Jack. If he was being completely honest, he had been in love with Jack since he was thirteen and Jack made a joke so out-of-the-blue that milk came out his nose.

  
Maybe that was why he covered every mark he got, hiding them away from the world and from Jack. Jack was both his best friend and the person he’d been in love with since he was a middle schooler. If Jack was disgusted to see his art on skin so unworthy of it, if he turned away, David didn’t think he’d recover any time soon.

 

 

Jack Kelly’s soulmate was incredible without knowing it. Every mark he got reinforced it. His soulmate was smart, obviously, if the long equations along his palms were any indication, but they were also kind. Jack was no longer surprised to find marks like “Charlie sad-- talk to him after school!” and “Sarah got dumped-- bring over fancy donuts she loves,” all written in tidy handwriting and nowhere but his arms.

  
There was no way Jack deserved that. He didn’t deserve someone who picked up on the littlest hints from their friends and did whatever they could to make them feel better. He didn't deserve someone who wrote quotes from George Orwell books on the backs of their hands in gel pen and checked off a to-do list as the day went by.

  
But every mark he was gifted with, he fell a little bit more in love with whoever was writing those things on their hands. He tried to show them-- paintings and drawings littered his arms and legs that promised _I_ _care_ and _I_ _can’t_ _wait_ _to_ _meet_ _you_.

  
But no matter how vibrant his paints, he never saw anyone in the halls with his colors spread across their skin.

  
His soulmate went to his school, Jack knew that. He had seen dates of field trips that they had in common and even homework assignments that they had at the same time.

  
Which meant that his soulmate was hiding their marks or their entire self.

  
Jack wasn’t sure why his soulmate did that, but it was alright with him. Maybe they were someone from a religious family that didn’t believe in soulmate bonds before marriage. Maybe they were a boy who was afraid of loving another boy. Maybe they weren’t ready for the idea of a soulmate yet.

  
That was all fine with Jack. As long as his soulmate met him some day, that was good enough, because Jack was confident enough to believe that once he met them, they would fall in love with him. Partially because he was a practiced flirt, and partially because that was just the way things were supposed to be.

  
He didn’t know why his soulmate was hiding away the marks he left, but he kept leaving them, because someone with a heart that beautiful deserved to see beauty all over their skin.

 

 

“Davey…”

  
David scratched another tally mark on his paper as Jack whined, draped over a rolling chair, his head in David’s lap, which yeah, was distracting.

  
“Jack, I have to study, and don’t you have class soon?”

  
Jack shook his head. “Professor canceled for the fifth time. I don’t need him, anyways, I’ve got you to teach me.” David rolled his eyes, cheeks heating up as he cursed his best friend/soulmate/crush of seven years.

  
“Do you even know what you’re supposed to be working on?” David asked, and Jack laughed.

  
“Nope! I’m free as a bird without memories!”

  
God, he loved him so much it sometimes hurt.

  
“Well, do something besides bother me, like turning up the air conditioning.”

  
Jack clicked his tongue. “You could just wear short sleeves, you know. I won’t blame you for being a twink."

  
David gasped, faking offense. “How dare you! I have guns, Jack. Better than Spot, I promise you that.”

  
Jack raised his eyebrows, bringing his hand to his chin. (The ASL sign for “lesbian”, David’s annoying brain reminded him.) “Proof or it didn’t happen.”

  
“I’ve got to retain my mysterious vibes,” David joked, hoping to god that Jack would back off.

  
Jack sat up, taking a second to spin his rolling chair until he was facing David, cross-legged. He put a hand on David’s knee. “You know you can feel comfortable around me, right?”

  
David smiled, caught between embarrassment and thankfulness that yes, he was so, so in love with someone who would drop any playful pretense to make sure David knew he cared.

  
“I feel more comfortable around you than anyone else in the world.”

  
Jack grinned, the corners of his eye crinkling, and it faded slowly. “I haven’t seen you wear short sleeves since third grade. Hell, I haven’t seen your arms since then.”

  
David shrugged, trying for nonchalant. “No one ever really notices.”

  
“Davey, you must be dying during the summer!”

  
David shrugged again, and the space between Jack’s eyebrows scrunched up. “Why are you doing this to yourself?” David remained silent. “I can take it, Christ, weird birthmarks, skin condition, anything, nothing’s to weird for us.”

  
Jack’s arms were covered in blue and green and purple, swirling patterns that came up from under his short sleeves and circled all around his arms. David tugged his sleeve down to cover any possible clues, and Jack put his hand over David’s.  
“Don’t. Nothing’s too weird, remember?”

  
That’s when David fell apart. Dropping his pencil onto his desk and curling right into Jack like he knew he could, he cried with the weight of twelve years of a secret bigger than the moon Jack had rambled about in his days dreaming of Santa Fe pounding down on him.

  
Immediately, Jack held him close, threading his fingers through his hair and muttering quiet things. David felt his hiccups slow and vanish, and his gasps for air turn into sniffs, and before long, Jack was bringing him a glass of water. David took a few hesitant sips before he started rolling up his sleeves.

  
“Dave, you don’t have t-- _oh_.”

  
David bit his lip, refusing to look at Jack’s face. Across his skin, vibrant like gemstones, were the same colors Jack had painted late at night.

  
“Still not too weird?” he asked tentatively, and didn’t get a response until Jack’s hand touched his chin to tip it up so he could see tears shining on Jack’s face and a huge beam from ear to ear.

  
“Davey Jacobs, you idiot,” Jack said, and David was too stunned to note the soft tone in his voice. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

  
“I didn’t want to lose you,” he admitted out loud for the first time. “I’ve been in love with you since we were thirteen and the worst thing I could think of you doing was leaving me along at fucking Columbia.”

  
Jack looked shocked. “Why the hell would I leave you, you’re my best friend! My soulmate!” The word sent a chill down David’s spine, and he had to swallow hard before he spoke.

  
“I didn’t think you’d think I was good enough. You left these paintings all over my arms, and my back, and no part of me is good enough for something that beautiful.”

  
Jack shook his head fiercely, like he was ridding himself of the thought. “Do you know what marks I get from you? Reminders to cheer up a friend who was sad, or names of people you just met, or facts you remembered that someone would like. Davey, you have the most incredible mind and the biggest heart out of anyone in the world. You deserve things far better than my paintings. I don’t know how the hell you could think otherwise.”

  
David felt tears trying to choke him again, and he pushed them back. “I love you. So much.”

  
Jack sighed. “Couldn’t you have told me that years ago? God, Davey, I thought whoever my soulmate was must have seen my arms and, I dunno, been disgusted it was me or something. You being you is.. so much simpler.”

  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” David said, no heat behind it.

  
“Overthinking,” Jack said with a shit-eating grin, and David hit him in the arm. “Ow, crap! I love you that way, don’t worry!”

  
“You lo--” David cut off when Jack swooped in to kiss him.

  
Forgetting words, David pulled him in by his collar, the colors on their arms matching as they kissed each other like the other was the last bit of warmth on Earth.

  
David had been in love with Jack Kelly for seven years, and he wanted to be with him for the rest of his life.

 

_Ten_ _years_ _later_

 

Jack Kelly had never had an issue with shaky hands before, and as an artist, it would have made his job a lot harder. But, well. There he was.

  
David made a soft sound next to him. “Just give me the camera.” Jack handed it over without hesitation, and David shooed him over to stand next to their daughter. David snapped a picture with the Polaroid, flapping the picture and sticking it in his pocket once it developed.

  
Elena Jacobs-Kelly sighed in the aggrieved way only kindergarteners can. “Are you done yet?”

  
“Almost, honey,” David said absentmindedly, and crouched down next to her. “All three, okay?”

  
She humphed but smiled, grinning widely into the camera. David started waving the photo, and nodded to Jack, who took a marker out of his pocket.

  
“Hold out your hand, okay?” he asked, and she did without questioning it. He carefully drew a heart on her palm and filled it in. “There. See? Now we match.” He held up his palm, complete with a blue Sharpie-d heart, courtesy of David. He elbowed his husband, who held up a hand with the exact same heart.

  
“Be good in school, okay?” Jack said, and his daughter nodded quickly, swiping away tiny tears. David leaned down and whispered something in her ear, kissing her on the forehead and then on her palm, on top of the heart. He folded her fingers over her palm in a fist.

  
“Your dads love you so much, okay sweetie?” he said softly, and Elena jumped forward to hug his shoulders. Jack stilled his shaking hands to take a picture, then joined the hug, wrapping up his family in a hug.

  
Elena eventually pulled away and tugged on her backpack straps. “Have a good day at work!” she said before she ran away, and Jack was overcome with love for the tiny girl.

  
David held out a hand to help him up, and Jack kissed him, letting himself linger near David, reveling in loving him, before he stepped back.

  
“She’s our sign,” David said, and Jack cocked his head to the side.

  
“Our sign?”

  
“She’s what tells the world, for certain, that we are exactly as meant to be as the universe says we are,” David explained with a faraway look. He turned to Jack, suddenly back in reality, and his eyes sparkled. “I don’t need a sign, though.”

  
“Why’s that?” Jack asked, taking his hand as they walked back to the parking lot.

  
“Loving you has been a part of me since I was a teenager. In a whole world of black and white, you are the one person who has always been clear and colorful.” He squeezed Jack’s hand. “You let me be bright.”

  
Jack glanced down at David’s arms, covered with the mark of Jack’s bright blue paintings, swirling around his freckles.  
“You’ve always been bright,” Jack said, and David smiled.

  
They didn’t need a sign. Their whole world, their little family, their love, was all the sign they’d ever need.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked that, it healed my soul forever. I love happy things.  
> Happy birthday Indy!!!!! Ily you're a gem.  
> As always, my tumblr is @penzyroamin if you want to come chat or send me prompts or requests! (Please do they're always open!)  
> Love you, if you comment I'll cry.


End file.
